WaterColor -- a newbie on the A

Published: Thursday, July 17, 2014 at 03:46 PM.

The year was 1998 and 17 years had passed since the founding of
Seaside
.

The former unremarkable
County Road
30A was getting noticed, not only by the rest of the world, but also by the mighty St. Joe Company.

At that time, St. Joe was the largest land owner in the state of
Florida
, and in
Walton
County
.

However, it had taken the building of the walkable New Urbanist town of
Seaside
to show the giant St. Joe Co. what could be done with a little property situated on a lonely county road along the beach.

Jim Rester was working for Sandestin when he accepted the position with St. Joe as vice president of its Northwest region. He would work under Peter Rummell, a former president at Walt Disney who was behind its Celebration community. Rester and Rummell had worked together at
Amelia
Island
in the 1960s.

Rester was to oversee development of St. Joe properties in Gulf, Bay, and Walton counties. The hottest of those was the WaterColor development in
Walton
County
on
County Road
30A.

WaterColor was still in the planning stages when Rester came onboard, and had not yet been launched, or even named.

The year was 1998 and 17 years had passed since the founding of Seaside.

The former unremarkable County Road 30A was getting noticed, not only by the rest of the world, but also by the mighty St. Joe Company.

At that time, St. Joe was the largest land owner in the state of Florida, and in WaltonCounty.

However, it had taken the building of the walkable New Urbanist town of Seaside to show the giant St. Joe Co. what could be done with a little property situated on a lonely county road along the beach.

Jim Rester was working for Sandestin when he accepted the position with St. Joe as vice president of its Northwest region. He would work under Peter Rummell, a former president at Walt Disney who was behind its Celebration community. Rester and Rummell had worked together at AmeliaIsland in the 1960s.

Rester was to oversee development of St. Joe properties in Gulf, Bay, and Walton counties. The hottest of those was the WaterColor development in WaltonCounty on County Road 30A.

WaterColor was still in the planning stages when Rester came onboard, and had not yet been launched, or even named.

"St. Joe owned a lot of land, but the best of it was in WaltonCounty," Rester says today. "And, best of all, it surrounded Seaside. People didn't know where the Florida Panhandle was, but everybody knew where Seaside was."

Even though St. Joe owned so much more land than the 80 acres Seaside occupied and the giant corporation had so many more resources to tap, people thought it foolish to attempt to improve on Seaside.

"Seaside was built on the premise of New Urbanism and the theory of separating people from their automobiles, which was a novel idea," said Rester. "However, it became apparent that you could not separate people from their automobiles that easily and Seaside became a traffic and parking nightmare. People liked that concept but they wanted more room and parking and we tried to give them that in planning WaterColor."

Rester recalls that it took three days to name the development.

"All the corporate folks were here and seated around a table," said Rester. "We wanted a name that reflected the area and the beautiful color of the water. On the third day, Chick Grant, vice president of design and development, referred to the colors on a watercolor print he had seen. It was then that everyone agreed on the name WaterColor."

The property consisted of 500 acres and surrounded Seaside on three sides, a fact that Seasiders were not happy about.

"Seaside was up in arms when we started WaterColor," said Rester. "Our architect Jaque Robertson called an open meeting with Seaside to help diffuse things. Seaside made suggestions and he incorporated some of them. Such as there are two connecting roads in Seaside that would have allowed mutual access between the properties. But Seaside wanted to maintain its separate identity. So we put up barriers to prevent free access. The roads still aren't connected but I think they will be some day."

Rester was only with St. Joe for 3.5 years, from 1998-2001, but they were the formative years of molding the resort, naming it, and determining what it would look like.

"Timing is everything. WaterColor came to the market at right time," he said. "People used to think of this as the redneck Riviera. Seaside and Andres Duany generated its change, but the area was improved by WaterColor. The architecture and planning was exceptional. There was a pattern book that detailed each section and each section had its own set of house plans and colors and open space with green space that runs through the corridor. I think everyone involved with the project is proud of the way it turned out. The people who live there are proud. It was well executed and has been time tested."

Success has a lot of authors, Rester added.

The WaterColor Beach Club was designed by Chick Grant, and local architect Tom Christ, who designed The Boat House.

"There were a lot of design people and all very experienced. It took an enormous effort. Chick had a lot of influence and Rummell had excellent taste," said Rester.

As for his own influence, the former VP's hand can be seen at the 60-room WaterColor Inn.

"They proposed a 155-room hotel. But we didn't have a lot of beach front and they wanted to take it all for the hotel. So, we put the pool over the hotel and I was able to get the hotel reduced to 60 rooms, which left some beachfront for homes," said Rester.

Today, WaterColor is almost completely built out at 1,000 homes.

"St. Joe had a lot of land. They tried to replicate the success of WaterColor in GulfCounty at their property there and even relocated U.S. Highway 98 to make more of that propertyGulf side. But none of their endeavors have been as successful as the WaterColor and WaterSound projects," he said proudly.